Thursday, November 8, 2012

Plans to add a lane in each direction to the Reston Zoo-Krystal Koons Expressway Rt. 7 between Reston Avenue and Tysons Corner are moving forward. There's now even talk of bike paths and some interchange improvements. The only catch? A piddling $300 million price tag.

After receiving $10 million to study the Rt. 7 super-sizing last year, VDOT and Fairfax County have done some studies and whatnot, sent letters to adjacent property owners in anticipation of surveying, and built a nifty website. They've even come up with a fancy logo for the project and its working group (which includes a representative of the Reston Association, BTW). Behold!

There's also some cool traffic flow charts we don't quite understand, like this:

Given the growth in the area (and in the shlocky strip-mall nirvana encountered just further west as soon as you cross the Loudoun County line), expanding Rt. 7 probably makes sense. It's also probably a recognition of how much traffic will be diverted from the Toll Road once it starts demanding entire rolls of quarters just to get to the Sunglass Hut in the middle of Tysons' walkable downtown shopping malls. But given the state's reluctance to fund other needed infrastructure, we're not holding our breath for that $300 million anytime soon.

VDOT is holding a public information meeting about the project at 6pm Nov. 28 at Colvin Run Elementary. Stop by with questions, and if you happen to have an extra $300 million or so lying around, we're sure they wouldn't complain if you brought it by, the end.